Friendship Bracelet
This pretty bracelet is super easy to make, they acutally make a perfect party activity for teenagers…Try making them extra long (about 48cm) and wrapping them around and around your wrist for a look that’s bang on trend!
Ingredients for the pink bracelet:
3 Different coloured strands of 6mm Glass Pearls (we’ve used Royal, Violet and Lavender)
1/2 Meter of 1mm Chocolate Leather Cord (try using other colours too)
S-Lon Bead Thread in Brown (make sure the colour of your S Lon co-ordinates with your leather)
1 x Bead Board
2 x “Bull Dog Clips”
Silver & Gold Bracelet:
For the silver and gold bracelet we used 2 meters of chocolate leather and 3 meters of S Lon Bead Thread – you need to make the bracelet extra long. Then we used 6mm Glass Pearls in Peanut and Pewter colours and two packs of 6mm Silver Plated Stardust Beads, along with some pretty gold and silver plated spacers which you can find here, it is finished with nice chunky gold plated bali style bead and glass pearl on a gold plated headpin which acts as a toggle and slips through a loop on the other end of the bracelet)
Method
1. Begin threading 1 meter of your S Lon thread onto the beading needle, make sure that the thread is doubled up (this will make it stronger. Now fold your piece of leather cord in half and tie a knot in it to create a loop – as you do this trap the end of the S Lon that doesn’t have the needle on it in the knot. Don’t make the loop too big as this is going to form part of your clasp – see below:
2. Now take the S Lon thread and knot it around one of the lengths of leather and add a dab of GS Hypo Cement to the knot, also soak the knot on the leather in Hypo Cement. See below:
Once you’ve tied the knot and added the Hypo Cement it should look like this:
3. Now use the two bulldog clips to clip the leather onto both ends of the Bead Board – see below:
4. Now thread on your first bead and wrap the S Lon thread around one side of the leather – see below:
5. Now wrap the S Lon over the top and underneath the opposite piece of leather and pull tight – slide the pearl into position:
6. Thread on another pearl and repeat steps 4 and 5 (to begin with it will feel a bit fiddly and your pearls won’t want to stay in place but once you’ve got a few pearls on it will all stay together more easily) See below:
7. Keep adding pearls until your bracelet is just about 7 inches long including the loop at the begining:
8. Once your bracelet is the desired length you need to knot the S Lon onto one of the strands of leather and then add some GS Hypo Cement:
9. Now take the bracelet off the bead board and tie a knot in the strands of leather trapping the S Lon inside the knot, add a dab of Hypo Cement to this knot and leave to dry for a fiv mins:
10. (If you’re making the silver and gold version skip this stage and go to stage 11) Finally tie some more knots on top of this first knot until the knots are big enough to stay in the loop at the other end of the bracelet (don’t make the knot too big or you won’t be able to fasten your bracelet), soak the knot in Hypo Cement and leave to dry. Once it’s dry trim off the excess leather and you’re all finished:
11. For the Silver and Gold bracelet you’ll need to add the focal bead to the loop that you made in Stage 1 using a headpin to make a wire wrapped loop. Then finish off the other end by tieing three knots in the leather approx 1.5 inches apart thus creating a two large loops which the large focal bead can be slipped into to fasten the bracelet. Make sure that you trap the S Lon in the first knot and secure it with a dab of Hypo Cement before trimming it off neatly against the knot.
